Thursday, 29 November 2012

My new little boy, Little H arrived safely but somewhat traumatically into the World last Wednesday. Little H is doing very well, Mummy feels a little battered but getting better every day. He is completely gorgeous and I am head over heels in love! Will be back again with more, hopefully before Christmas but for now our little complete family is snuggling down and enjoying some recovery time. See you soon.

Monday, 19 November 2012

We celebrated a Birthday over the weekend but not a Birth day. Luckily baby is not going to share it's birthday with it's Daddy although that means I'm still sitting here, the size of a house and feeling rather fed up.

It was lovely S's Birthday on Saturday and I ignored his claims that I shouldn't be baking cake in my condition and made a very simple plain victoria sponge, iced it with plenty of buttercream and let little F choose what decorations. If I say so myself it was delicious. The three of us have more or less polished the whole thing off. And despite the no baking comments I'm just about to start on a banana loaf now. Keeping busy is best right now, and I hope that I may encourage baby to come if I keep on my feet and stay active. Tomorrow is officially 40 weeks so it could be any time now. I'll keep you posted.

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Edit - You may have noticed I've made a few changes around here. I've been feeling for a while that everything was looking a bit cluttered and busy and I wanted the pictures and text to really stand out. So I've cleared all the background stuff and deleted quite a bit of stuff from the side bar. Also, I've gone for just one side bar. You can now find my list of blogs I love via the tab at the top of the page which will take you to a separate list. I'm just in the process of adding links to that list. I've also dropped the label list and archive down to the bottom of the page. I've written a new 'about me' page which you can access again via the tabs at the top. You can find the link to my email address there and I may add to that page from time to time. Hope you like the new uncluttered look. F x

Monday, 12 November 2012

Hello. Ok, so I just couldn't resist. I know I said I was going to wait until after baby arrives but I changed my mind.

I've popped all the new items I've stitched recently into myEtsy Shop.

I've been loving making some little felt and button brooches and I had an idea to make some felt tissue holders. It is tissue time of year after all and something pretty is nicer than the plastic wrapper they come in.

I've got some more things on the go in the making tin and I'm also going to list a few of my older items over the next few days.

Today we're mostly hanging out on the sofa as little F has some sort of bug. Occasionally being sick and just not really himself. Luckily Fireman Sam helps to make my little boy feel better. That and lots of snuggles from Mummy. Hopefully see you later in the week.

Friday, 9 November 2012

Morning! I finally managed to take some photos in baby's room this morning although the light is not exactly brilliant. Above is the little nursing chair that used to belong to my Grandma. I made a loose cover for it when I lived in Kew. It's a green denim and isn't what I want on it long term but it kind of works for now. Actually, when I had this chair in Little F's room I had his patchwork throw over it which looked really nice. I'd like to do something similar in this room but will wait until we know what baby is. Above is a lovely picture that my extremely talented Sister made for me a few years ago. She's a textile designer and like me makes accessories and pictures for the home. She makes some really beautiful things, mainly to order sold locally through friends. I keep telling her she should open a shop on line to share her prettiness with everyone. She currently is a child minder so does the making in her spare time but when her youngest starts School next year she's planning on dropping the child minding and going back to the designing full time. I'll keep you posted if she opens an on line shop as you'd love her work.

Here are the pictures I was making a month or so ago. I'm afraid I didn't get round to filling the fourth frame yet. I will definitely do it, just can't quite decide on the design yet. These are above and to the side of the changing table so will give baby something bright to look at.

Here's a close up of the little nursing chair. I've popped a cushion on it that I made ages ago. I used to sell this design in my shop but had a couple left. It's a tiny red polkadot with some little floral hearts appliqued down the centre. The two little softies have been around for a while. The cute little bear was purchased from this cute shop on Folksy before I even became a Mummy just because I kind of fell in love with him. The little rabbit was originally bought for Little F but he never really became attached to it. He already has so many favourite softies. So I thought they'd look cute in baby's room instead.

Here's a better look at that cute heart picture from my Sis and the bunting I've made. The curtains were bought for Little F originally and were from Mothercare. They're just a simple polka dot in multi colours. I've tried to pick out some of those colours in everything I've made and added to the room as they are fairly unisex for now. They also match the linings of the Moses basket which will spend some time in here although for now it is in our room where baby will sleep to start with.

We moved the cot into here the other day which is earlier than expected as we won't need it for a while. We were planning on buying Little F a 'big boy's bed' after Christmas so he could go into it a month or two before baby needed the cot, but while we were Christmas shopping in John Lewis last week be happened to see a perfect bed for him at a fab price so we bought it then and there. It was delivered on Monday and thanks to my lovely Daddy is now up in his room. We weren't sure if it was all a bit early as he only just turned two but he's taken to it like a duck to water. Suddenly such a big boy. I have to admit to having a little cry on the first night after he'd snuggled down. I'm not very good with these milestones.

I hope you liked the little look at the nursery. Sorry they are so dull. Would have been better on a sunny day but they're in short supply around here at the moment.

So I'll leave you with some brightness. A sneaky peek on some of the things I've been working on the last few evenings. I'm gathering quite a collection of new designs for the shop. I really want to get them in the Etsy shop but I'm thinking it might be easier to wait until after baby is here in case I make any sales and can't get them posted due to be in labour! I'll let you know when they're available.

Monday, 5 November 2012

Hello, hello. How is everyone on this lovely sunny Autumn day? I'm still here, getting bigger by the minute! Just two weeks to go until my official due date but I'm hoping it will come sooner. I am trying to keep really active, cleaning and polishing everything in sight!

I've also been doing a lot of sorting and organising. On Saturday I decided that my sewing things needed a major sort out. I had stuff all over the place in lots of different boxes and containers. All my large fabric pieces are fairly organised in big bags so they didn't need dealing with, but it was all the small stuff that needed attention. Buttons, fabrics, ribbons and accessories were in a state of disarray.

As well as starting work in the evenings on new items for my etsy shop, I also really really wanted to get back to my little hexie project that has been on hold for longer than I care to admit. I was inspired my Mrs Bun's mobile making box and decided to make one of my own for hexie making. Sorting through everything I realised I had about three tins all of which were filled with very little so I emptied them all out and began again. I decided to use this pretty blue one for the hexies. I went through the fabrics I'm using for the project and cut a load into squares then cut a lot of paper bits too. I added some thread and a needle as well as a small pair of scissors and now it's ready to go. It's pretty small so will fit into the baby change bag. I actually couldn't resist starting on a few last night while watching Downton(so sad it's over) and they're so quick to do. I've enough now to start adding to the patch shown in the last picture.

A second slightly larger tin has been filled with small scraps of felt and some bits I started but didn't finish and which now may become part of something else.

The third tin is for current projects. So it's sort of like the hexie tin but for items I am making to sell. I'm really loving the idea of having everything organised like this. I know that once baby arrives time for me is going to be in short supply so knowing that I have everything handy is a wonderful feeling. I know that even if I get just 10 minutes to myself suddenly I can open up one of my little tins and get on with some stitching.

You'll notice that there is a lot of felt in these pictures. It really is my favourite thing to work with at the moment and a lot of my new products are going to be using it. It's so lovely to work with and it means a lot of hand sewing which to be honest is going to be the best way for me to work in the coming months. Despite being a stay-at-home Mummy and very soon having two small people to look after, I do have the need to be creative and I do have the need to make just a little bit of money. Being able to work on small hand stitched projects is perfect for this.

Little F has gone for a nap now so I'm going to put my feet up and open one of my tins right away. Hopefully I'll be back again in a few days to share with you pictures of the nursery. But if I go a bit quiet you'll know little munchkin has come early due to all my manic cleaning activity!